Nifty, twisty suspense requiring some suspension of disbelief.
An attorney finds out who abducted her (and her sister) as teens in western Virginia while prosecuting a current case in this legal/crime thriller from Iwan.
Sisters Charlotte and Mari Jones, 18 and 14 years old, respectively, are camping in their hometown western Virginia woods. Charlotte, excited to start college in the fall, is awaiting boyfriend Jack Henry to join them around the campfire. The next thing we know, Charlotte is running from a shadowy attacker and passes out. She wakes up in a cave, eventually finding Mari there, who cries, “He hurt me.” Charlotte then has to fend off their kidnapper, and the girls flee, only to have Mari drown in the nearby river in an attempt to swim to safety. The narrative then jumps 22 years to the 1980s. Charlotte is now a U.S. attorney in D.C., prosecuting the kidnapping/molestation/murder of 8-year-old Kaya Adkins, whose disappearance had captivated the nation. She suspects the accused, a man named Mark Reynolds, is behind ongoing abductions in the area, but frustratingly there’s only evidence linking him to Kaya (and even that is questioned at trial). After the trial, Charlotte continues to dig into his past, which to her shock leads back to her family’s own sheep-rearing farm operations in Virginia. She uncovers more men with connections to the area abductions, including some she knows. Relying on players she doesn’t completely trust, and learning more about the tensions between the area’s Welsh-descended farmers and Monacan tribe, Charlotte ultimately gets answers while racing against the clock to expose a human trafficking ring just as another young girl goes missing.
Author Iwan has crafted a thriller that grabs reader interest from the get-go, given its shocking child abduction opening that will have readers (much like Charlotte) determined to seek clarity and closure on a tragic incident, which is effectively conveyed via murky, shadowy description. This book also contains clever slow reveals of several key details, including the identity of the “mystery man” that visits Charlotte in her D.C. apartment and why one instance of her awakening half-naked is not as threatening as it might seem. Although the cultural concerns and fears of Native Americans ultimately provide some context for why this horrific crime ring was held a secret for so long, the ethnic backgrounds of people in this Virginia community are not always apparent. Some plot elements are a bit fantastical, given the less than convincing evidence. It’s also a bit surprising that Charlotte, an area kidnapping victim herself, would be tapped to prosecute Kaya’s case in the first place, although this circumstance also helps to foster a tension-building sense of paranoia, with Charlotte at one point remarking to her family, “But what does it all mean? What are you going to suggest next? That it wasn’t a coincidence that I was assigned to Kaya’s case?” Charlotte’s interludes with her family, while serving as heartwarming contrast to the dark doings of the community that she soon exposes, prove tedious at times, with descriptions of meal-making and tea-drinking occasionally serving as frustrating interruptions to the main action.
Nifty, twisty suspense requiring some suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: Dec. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9798992234206
Page Count: 450
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Jewell is absolutely a genius at building suspense, but the “man behaving badly” plot is getting tired.
Following her father’s sudden death, Aisling Swann is secretly horrified when her mother begins to date again—and she quickly becomes suspicious of this new flame.
Four years ago: A mysterious male narrator reflects upon his relationship with his wife—along with a few pointed comments about how she is aging. It quickly becomes apparent that this self-proclaimed “very pleasant” man is not who he seems; he already has a girlfriend on the side, and he’s playing both women with sob stories about his job and his traumatic past while taking money from them. Even as they get more and more frustrated with his lack of communication during ever-lengthening absences, he still gives them what they want: “a top-notch husband.” In the present day, Ash Swann; her brother, Arlo; and their mother, Nina, mourn the loss of her charismatic father, Paddy, a successful chef with a chain of lucrative restaurants. Nina receives a sympathy note from a man who claims to have worked closely with Paddy in the industry, which leads to a robust online flirtation that moves into the real world about a year after her husband’s death. Ash is living at home, mired in grief as well as her own mental health struggles, and she’s none too happy to see her mom dating—but particularly this handsome, egregiously suave Nick Radcliffe. Ash begins to notice some inconsistencies with his stories and his past, so she enlists Paddy’s ex-girlfriend Jane to help her investigate. Meanwhile, Ash’s story continues to intercut that of the mysterious man who is now married to his former girlfriend—and still up to his old tricks. Jewell’s cutting between past and present certainly allows revelations to ooze out at a slow, controlled pace; even as the reader makes obvious connections, the full picture remains obscure. Jewell has written some incredibly engaging and strong female characters, Nina, Ash, and Jane foremost among them. What would it have been like to split the narrative between them instead of giving so much voice—and thus narrative power—to the male antagonist?
Jewell is absolutely a genius at building suspense, but the “man behaving badly” plot is getting tired.Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9781668033876
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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